Lawnmowers, SUVs and Mud

Hi y’all!  I was very busy today but I did get a small walk in after I got to work.  One of the girls wanted to go on a walk and I went with her.  We only walked 13 minutes which was 1.11 miles.  I will take that considering how busy I have been lately.  Tomorrow we will resume our normal walking in the morning, at least for tomorrow. I really look forward to resuming my regular schedule.  Jeffrey may have to help out some more but that will be ok.  I had a couple of Coke Zeros today and I really cut back on my food consumption.  I think that will be a big help too. Drank more water than anything else and that is good too.  I need to not overdose on the sodium in the pop but I think a few won’t hurt.  And getting out of the house and back to work is going to help me more than I ever thought.  It is like I never left.  It is rare you end up leaving a job and go back a period of time later and you fall into shape like you didn’t leave.  I have things I have to brush up on but I am good.  Glad to be back actually.

Just a small update–the relative that had surgery is doing very well.  Thank you to all who were sending happy thoughts and prayers to us.

This morning before I had to go to work we went to pick up the lawnmower we were buying from a friend.  Our old one went and puked and this one was very inexpensive and a John Deere to boot.  We borrowed my uncle’s truck again just like we did for the one that was free.  We picked it up, and it went right in!  The other one causes all sorts of issues trying to get it loaded.  It just sat too low or something but this one went right in.  We talk to him a while and then we head home and again I decide to go get him and let him back it into the bank of the yard and so he can look at the mower.  We get it back to the house, he backs it in and Derek drives it off the back of the truck . Then, with all the monsoon type weather we had been having, he got stuck!  There the truck sat, crossways in the middle of the road, stuck in mud!  Derek and I hopped in the back and it wouldn’t budge.  So we got a shovel, dug out some mud and put some gravel on under the tires.  Still wouldn’t budge.  He is about to spazz out because it won’t budge.  Oh but get this!  I go get my little fiddly SUV, and he is driving a F250.  I hook up my hitch, we attach a chain to it and to his truck ,and I pull it out!  I pull out a pick-up truck with my SUV!  That was about a hoot!  But again, 4x4s are amazing.  🙂

Here is today’s 30 day challenge:

Day 6–Your favorite season and why:  I love fall.  You would think I would like summer since it is my birthday or winter for Christmas.  But my favorite is fall.  I love the feel of the coolness in the air, the feel of wiener roasts and hot chocolate in the air.  I feel the ghosts and things around Halloween.   I can smell the pencil lead and diesel fumes of the school buses.  Fall, much like the highways, calls out to my soul.  Right after my birthday I get the fall bug that I cannot shake until fall shows up.  It almost throws me to a depression because I want fall to show up so bad.  I love the leaves, especially the bright yellow, orange and red ones.  They have to be a specific shade too.  I can’t wait!

This is about all I have for now.  I am about beat and I wan to walk early so I better head to bed. Have a great night y’all!

–S

Walking and Bugs, Grilling and Bugs, Idiotest and no Bugs

Hi y’all!  We got our walk in this morning, 56 minutes and 2.1 miles.  It was hot.  No jogging it was so hot.  We did resume with our weights and Annie was half mad because she said she couldn’t swat the bugs away with the weights on her hands. It was buggy too.  It has been buggy all day. There were bugs of all sorts, things I don’t even recognize but no dragonflies.  I haven’t looked that stuff up on dragonflies yet but hopefully when I do I can learn if they avoid heat.  More on buggy later.  It was hot enough early this morning that I was huffing and puffing up the hills.  I don’t like days like that.  I also don’t like it when you stop you sweat like a water spicket, or I guess spigot is the correct term although spicket I like better.  Ha!   But during our walk, spiders had strung webs across where we had just walked at I know at least in 3 places.  I had to knock all those out-of-the-way on the way back through.

Our talk this morning consisted of telling Annie how Derek and I got together and how to figure out if that person likes you and how to approach asking them if they do or if they want to hang out or something.  She asked how I got to the point where we got together and how we figured all that stuff out.  Well here it is.  I told her I didn’t remember the exact moment of how we decided to go out, but now I believe someone may have mentioned it to him or something and we did have a mutual friend involved somehow and I don’t remember all of that but I do remember he asked me to the movies or something.  Someone else at one point had encouraged me to ask him to go eat or something too.  This was in late 96.  Annie had just turned 1 and when she met Derek she ran up to him and held her hands up wanting him to pick her up.  Kids know, you know.  🙂  So we went out then and we just didn’t click or something.  Later on, in February of 97, I ended up wrecking my car.  That was a sad story and I will tell that another day.  That was on a Wednesday, on Friday the 13th we ended up getting back together and somehow we figured out that this was what was going to work.  I know there was outside interference in a good way, friends encouraging me and him both to get together which was nice.  But we had to make that connection ourselves.  It took a while but here we are, 18 1/2 years together and in 9 days we will be married 17 years.  We were married the day before my 22nd birthday.  Back to back celebrations there.  This year I am going to grill out on my anniversary for both the birthday and anniversary.  And go next week to see Rob Thomas.  5 days!  5 days!  I am so excited I could jump up and down.  Ha!

We also discussed again how to get her a car.  Or a truck.  We are just going to have to go and look. We discussed the cost of repairs and how some brands are rumored to cost more to fix than others.  We also talked about a car that I traded in many years ago that I wished I still had.  It was a 1990 GMC Jimmy and I wish I still had it.  It would go in any weather anywhere.  The odometer stopped in it at 185180 or something and I drove it 3 1/2 more years after it stopped and I KNOW I had to roll that over a million miles.  It was one of the best cars I have had.  The one I have now is awesome too because it used to be my aunt’s and she gave it to me when she got sick, before she passed away.  It has more value to me than any other car I have owned and I know she smiles down from Heaven knowing that the main reason I love the car is she gave it to me.  Well SUV rather.  I can’t get my tall self in a car successfully.  I look like I am doing some sort of watoosie getting in and out.  OMG that got even funnier because WordPress wants to correct that to tootsie  Yeah, I did a tootsie getting in and out of the car!  Hahahahaha!!!!!

Speaking of grilling, I grilled lunch today too. Hot dogs and potatoes and that was a few too many carbs but that is ok because I haven’t had potatoes for a while. That was after I ran out to pay a bill and get a new battery for the riding mower that Bill gave us.  So we got home with that and it started right up and ran but the cord melted against the battery and that got all messed up but with my uncle’s help we got it unscrewed.  The yard has been manicured pretty well.  We just have some trimming to be done but that depends on the rain and what time we finish running errands tomorrow.

Back to the grilling, it was hot hot hot outside grilling today. There was very little breeze walking today, and we usually always have a breeze on certain parts of the road, and definitely not when I was grilling. And it got buggier!  Derek must have stirred up the bugs when he mowed.  They were swarming and biting and just everywhere.  I told my aunt about sitting out in the bugs and she didn’t think I needed to be getting bit so much with them.  I will have to get some bug spray because they do annoy me.  The kids are going to an amusement park Sunday so I will get the sunscreen for them.  Shouldn’t be too buggy though there.

I have just noticed that I have 30 followers on here.  That may not seem like much but thank you!  I hope to get more eventually so please follow!  I promise I won’t be boring and if I am, I am open to suggestions.  🙂  And I just gained another as I write this blog!  Thank you!

I tweeted to Idiotest and Ben Gleib again today and Idiotest favorited my tweet!  I think that is just awesome that they take the time to respond like that.  I am sure they will hear from me a lot!  Ha!

On our drive today and on any drive, I like to listen to music and pretty loud.  It is one of life’s little pleasures that I just delight in.  When I do that, I tend to think.  It is actually a method to creative thinking, which I had a class on last semester that I just loved!  Anyway, when I can drive and blast music, or even sit at home and blast music, I can get down with all sorts of creative nutty thoughts.  I had three today, and they are more like ponderances and things I don’t have an answer for. I actually got an answer for one of them today.  The county that brings the water lines to our house, there is a river between here and there.  I wanted to know how they got around that.  I had to pay the water bill today so I asked. They went UNDER the river.  The lady explained that they drilled under the river with something that acts like a protective cover to the water lines and then they run the water lines through.  That is pretty cool!  These next two I don’t have a clue about.  How do women who faint at the sight of blood deal with that time of the month?  Good question and I have never got an answer for it.  This last one has stumped me all my life and especially now being adult I still don’t know.  How do teachers who have three months or so off every year make it?  Here is my logic–I know from my experiences just making it is tough let along saving money when bills are due.  Running with that concept, how do they save up?  I also hear that some aren’t paid that great.  Also I know that unemployment wouldn’t start until about the time they start back to teach so that may not work.  How does that work?  These may seem silly to some people but they are things I have no answers for!

We got the grass mowed and now we can fire up the fire pit at any time!  I am truly excited about that.

Our kitten is silly.  It was sitting on my shoulder, where it hangs out at, and starting biting and chewing on my face!  And it loves to chew on my necklace which I have to hide from it all the time.  I think it is just silly.  It finally settled down and went back to sleep.  It usually sits on my shoulder when I type but it is up and running around tonight.

Day 5 of the 30 day writing challenge–List five places I want to visit.

1. New Orleans—been there but I am itching to go back!

2. New York—have wanted to go there since I was a kid.

3. Canada—no where specific, just to Canada.

4. Ireland–the mother land. I have some Irish in me.

5. Waverly Hills in Louisville–We are planning on stopping there on our way back from Lexington in a few months.

So there is that.  We have errands to run tomorrow, and I am sure it will turn out to be a bloggily beautiful day!  Have a good night!  Drop me a line or comment or something, would love to hear from y’all!

–S

Weigh-in and Lawnmowers

Hi y’all!  Hope everyone had a good day.  It seems like it has been a long day.  I am pretty tired as I sit here and write this with a kitten on my shoulder, it rooting into my hair.  I love all my animals very much but I sure do love this kitten.  It brings new life in the house having one this little.  It is just as precious as it can be. I did notice today though that it was acting like the dogs. A kitten acting like dogs.  Only in my house.  🙂

Today was 45 minutes and 1.67 miles.  Had to cut it kind of short with an appointment this morning.  I did do something different today.  I actually jogged part of it.  Yes, folks, I jogged my fat booty right on down the road.  Annie said that I jogged longer than she thought I could or maybe she meant would…..Anyway after that I picked up the pace on walking and I did it thinking it will actually help me.  I am not sure but we seem to think that jiggling the rolls and sweating will help melt it off faster.  I sure hope.  If not faster then I hope it keeps it coming off.  I do know that I left this morning to our appointment feeling better than I have in a long time.  If jogging does that to me then maybe I need to do a bit every day.  Nothing says I have to jog the whole way, just part of it.  Then power walk some of the rest of it.  Yeah, I still got this.

So since we had to be at an appointment we had to get going to get our walk in.  Annie even walked in flip-flops!  She usually changes into regular shoes, with regular shoes meaning sneakers, tennis shoes, etc., bu we had to get going and she didn’t bother taking the time today to change.  She was not a happy camper with that and said at one time she could walk faster barefoot and she said she could keep up with me jogging if she didn’t have flip-flops.  I let her get ahead of me at one point and I had to run to get back to her.  It was good for me.  I do huff and puff but just like with the walking, a little here and a little there and I will be able to jog anywhere at anytime, as long as the ta-tas go down so I won’t knock myself out…..We did declare one thing.  Next Tuesday, as we walk a few blocks to see Rob Thomas, there will be NO huffing and puffing like I did with walking all over downtown Indy for Maroon 5.  That is a great feeling to know!  We also think we want to park farther at the stores too.  It will just be one more thing to do to keep it going and stamp out fat.

We both walked with our weights today.  And it was awfully buggy too.  Annie kept fighting off the bugs and I told her that was a great way to tone her arms.  She was talking about stepping on some sort of scale at work and it showed some weight loss too.  I told her that I can tell she is losing too and I see her every day.  We also discussed continuing this after we reach our ideal goal.  I told her we will have to maintain the diet and exercise just to maintain our weight once we get to where we are going.  Where is that you ask?  I want to fit in about 3 or 4 pants sizes smaller.  I am not sure if that coordinates to what I looked up for my ideal weight or not.  The Dr says I am 5’9″–I disagree because with shoes on I am a bit taller.  Well that was with shoes on.  I know I am taller than that but to save argument I will go with that.  A woman with a large frame, because I sure ain’t no petite, should weigh 170 at the most.  Me, weigh 170.  Bahahahaha!  I think that if I lose down that far I will look ill.  Like really bad illness ill.  But we shall see.  I do have the one goal of the size pants I want to wear but also, where ever I need to go to to keep my blood sugar in line.  That is the main goal.  This should also shape up my blood pressure but it is well controlled with meds.  But who knows, I may be able to get off those too.  I also mentioned to Annie that for me, it will take about a year to get off as much as I think I need to.  She knows she said.  By the time that I reach that she will be starting to maintain hers.  And walking really does help.  I think I go on about this every time but I can see such a difference with walking.  We also discussed walking in bad weather.  I had just made a comment to someone on Facebook yesterday that I couldn’t wait to huff it in the ice.  We decided that we would have to find another exercise when it was really nasty and cold outside.   I think I can handle moderate cold but really cold isn’t good for anyone to breathe and I know how graceful I am on ice, and Annie takes that same skill after me.  So DVD exercise or the bike it may have to be.

Now for the news you all have been waiting for.  When we got to the Dr today I weighed in again.  Y’all know how I have been flapping about thinking I put it all back on.  Wrong!  It was nothing astonishing as I just weighed last week, but it was 1 pound!  1 POUND DOWN!  That makes 21 for starting week 7 diet and 6 exercise!  Hot dogs!  Every pound is a HUGE victory!  I ought to celebrate but I will just cheer to myself.  🙂 Now I can stop freaking out thinking that I gained it all back in a day.  An average of 1 to 2 pounds a week is good.  I hope the jogging will bump that up to 2.  If I could hit 3 I would be ecstatic.  I am also torn between weighing myself frequently and not.  I go to the Dr office once a month to get prescriptions so I could weigh then and only then.  I shall see.  I guess what I am really trying to say is 1. I don’t want to see weight gain even if it is 1 pound from a bad week and 2.  I don’t want to bum myself out if I don’t lose but 1 pound a week.  Hard choices but I will figure out an appropriate weigh-in schedule.  My clothes are fitting better.  The shirts really do fit better and the pants are baggier but it is a weird place to be.  I know I can’t fit in smaller shirts but the ones I have fit better.  I know I can’t fit in smaller pants although I can pull them 2 to 4 inches away from my non-sucked-in gut and also need more belt holes.  It is just a strange place to be.  But one day it will be glorious to walk into a store and buy 4 or 5 sizes smaller pants!  I can’t wait!

I had talked yesterday about how Jeffrey wasn’t into the Best Friend Day stuff.  Today he put a pic about that on Facebook and tagged me and Annie and Derek in it and Derek liked it too.  Call me wrong.  I really did judge that one wrong.

This afternoon we had to go pick up a lawnmower that our friend Bill was going to give us.  It was an old lawnmower and it wasn’t being used.  So I had to go borrow my uncle’s honker pickup to go get it.  By honker I mean huge, as in Ford F-250 huge.  Yes folks, me and my son took off in this huge truck to go get a lawnmower.  Good thing too as it fit perfectly in there but it would have been too big for Annie’s I think.  Plus, the Ford has air conditioning and considering I overheat if I hold a hot cup of coffee, well it was a no-brainer which truck I preferred.  We get to Bill’s house and we go to where the lawnmower is and we get ready to load it up and it dies.  This was as he was hung halfway up the ramp trying to load it in the truck.  So he had to re-jump it and the deck wouldn’t clear the truck bed!  We moved to a lower part of the driveway and it still wouldn’t clear it.  We ended up backing up on a bank so he could just basically drive it in there.  That time it worked.  Three times!  Three times of trying to get that silly thing in the truck.  But I would love to say we, but HE got it.  All I did was move the truck. And it was hot!  He and his daughter’s family were trying to clear out a tree that fell the other night in a storm that came through.  In such heat!  It was close to 90 and probably over in the noon day sun.

We got it back home and decided that to get it out of the truck to back it up to our bank in the yard.  We attempted it with boards like he had but that was not going to work.  Neither was me backing it up.  I needed to go get my uncle so someone could stand in the road in case someone came by.  So sure enough, as soon as he got the truck backed up, someone had to wait on us to get it out of the truck and turned around.  We got it out of the truck and into the yard.  Mission accomplished.  And no one got hurt.

I saw a story on the news today where a little boy got a wish fulfilled in the southern part of the state by getting to ride in a Sherman tank.  I think stories like that are wonderful.  I was just waiting because I knew what they were going ot say.  Sure enough, he was fighting leukemia.  I know how that goes.  I never was a crying person.  I prefer to get mad first.  If I cry after I get mad, y’all better look out.  Just saying.  Anyway, when I hear of anyone fighting leukemia, it makes my blood run cold and I just want to cry.  I know what they have to go through.  But if they hang in there they can beat it.  My Jeffrey sure did.

Well this is about all I have for now.  I have been blogging and watching the Reds play. Yes, I watch it even when Derek isn’t home.  Have a good night!

–S

All Sorts of Madness!! Walking, Turtles, Frogs and Lawnmowers

Hi y’all!  Today we walked 47 minutes for 1.76 miles.  It was coming a monsoon today so we had to walk with our umbrellas so there was no using the hand weights.  Hopefully in the morning we can go back to that.  There were some hard storms that moved through up in northern Indiana but they settled down by the time they got here.  I had started to develop one of those nasty headaches that hit in behind your eye and drive you nuts and I was not interested in staying up all night with storms so I thank God for that.  Oddly enough after that, I slept so good!

We talked about a variety of things today on our walk but the funniest thing was Annie had all these wires connected in her pockets today.  She had a larger set of headphone and a larger wire there than the usual headphones she uses and then she had a wire running to her portable charger in her back pocket that was connected to her phone!  I told her she looked like she was all wired up for medical tests of some sort!

So we ran into a turtle crossing the road on the way down the road.  From up high it looked like a ladybug.  We wanted to see if it ever crossed when we came back but it was moving and trying to go.  I took a few pics of it.  I also saw a very tiny frog and it was moving but it was hard to get a pic.  I’ll post what I took but not sure how clear it is.  We saw the remains of a turtle that had been smashed a couple of dead frogs.  Amazing how much stuff is dead on the pavement that we never see when we are in the car.

I have been really concerned with putting weight back on. I keep thinking that everything I have lost I have put on.  Derek tells me to stop being paranoid.  I was talking to my aunt and we decided that in order to actually gain the 20 pounds back that I have lost, it would, OBVIOUSLY, be impossible to gain it all back in a day without being sick.  I think I am doing ok.  She also told me that some weeks I won’t lose anything and other times I will and she had done that very thing.  I just feel disgusted because I feel like I am getting no where although I know I am.  I feel changes and I can for sure feel differences in how my clothing fits and how I walk and my energy level.  I just need to keep doing what I am and not worry.  This is week 7 of diet and 6 of exercise so I have a long way to go.  I will get there.  It is too early yet to determine that all I am doing is for nothing and it won’t be if I stay clear headed, dedicated and keep going.

And just like my exercise routine I also have a blogging routine.  I think I had talked about it a little yesterday that I really enjoyed blogging and writing.  I set time aside every day to write and post it out there so others can read it.  It is so exciting to me!  It was so exciting that I had a dream about it last night.  I don’t exactly remember the whole dream but I remember we were going somewhere and we went in the wrong lanes and I remember turning around and going back and the main thing was, I was going to put that in my notes so I could blog about it later IN MY DREAM!  I must be grooving hardcore on writing if I am having dreams about it too!  And like I said yesterday I keep notes so I can remember what I want to write on later. When I blog our kitten sits on my shoulder.  I did feel like Ace Ventura earlier, I had two dogs and a kitten on me, and when I sat down to the computer I had a kitten, a dog and another cat that wrapped its tail around the computer screen.  The kitten likes to get on you and root down behind you or in the top or your shirt.  I sure do love all our critters.  🙂

Speaking of stuff that I love, Derek’s computer fouled up on him last night.  The computer screen went out.  He took the battery out and all and it didn’t fix it.  I got it this morning and let it set for a while to see if it was going to come on so I then took the battery out and it didn’t want to come out . Once I got it out and back in, it worked.  I can only figure that when he did, it didn’t go in right or something.  I am not sure.  I spend more time fixing computers for people than web designing.  I love it all.  And like writing, I get all giddy with the web design and fixing them.  There is nothing on a computer than can’t be fixed or backed out of, I don’t care how serious it looks.  Unlike life, there are so many things in computers and writing that can be edited or deleted or backspaced out of.  Wish life was like that sometimes.  I am so into computers and writing that I end up using that terminology to describe my life and stuff.  Remember a few blogs ago I was talking about reprogramming my life and my choices and stuff?  Yeah.  You get it.  Anyway, you would think that being in technology like I am that I would groove on new technology but some of it not so much.  I love the Apple stuff.  That is awesome.  In fact I think I may buy a Macbook very soon, just so I have straight Apple across the board.  Washers though are another story.  I had used one of the high-efficiency ones and I hated it.  It was just ignorant.  I didn’t smell the softener like you do when you use a regular washer. There are just some things that the old model is the best and that is one of them.  Our poor washer now expresses its dislike every time it is used.  Someday it will be retired.  Hope it can keep hobbling until then.

Today was supposed to be National Best Friends day.  I reposted a thing on Twitter to my daughter because she is truly my best friend.  Kids grow up and they end up becoming the best friends you have.  I think that is just wonderful.  My son and husband are too, but you know how guys are.  They don’t do all this mushy stuff.

So a week from tomorrow is our Rob Thomas concert.  OMG the closer I get the more excited I get!  That is going to be a blast.  Second row!!  I can’t wait. We should be getting our VIP packages in the mail this week for Rob Thomas.  In July we have another good one too.  We are going to see Train and The Fray and we get to meet The Fray!  That is going to be a hoot!!  That will be as cool as can be to actually meet Isaac Slade.  I hope to have a few more pounds off by then so I don’t look like a cow.

This is random but I think I will find someone to tweet to on Twitter again this week and see if they will respond.  That was so cool when Ben Gleib tweeted back to me last week.  I will keep you posted.

I saw a pic on another blog I follow about a 30 day writing challenge.  I decided I would do it too.  The first thing it says to do is list 10 things that make you really happy.  Here goes and in no particular order:

1. my kids

2. my husband

3. writing

4. my pets

5. good food

6. Impractical Jokers

7. shopping

8. good days

9. achieving a goal

10. knowing that someday I won’t be fat!

That is the only one for today.  Tomorrow should be interesting too  And speaking of interesting, we have been needing a lawnmower.  A friend of ours has one we are going to buy when we get the money but before then he dug out one that they aren’t using and is going to let us have it.  I am going to go get it tomorrow.  Thank you Bill.  Wish there were more people in this world like you.  Not just for lawnmowers but it would make it a better place.  How cool would it be if everyone cared for everyone else in the same level of emotion that we all cared for ourselves and our own family?  Keep wishing.  I will probably hit that 7 figure income that I keep saying I’m gonna make someday before that happens. But if it did…..wow.

I have rambled on and on today.  Hope y’all have a great night and we will talk tomorrow!

–S